Helmut Marko believes McLaren had a two to three-tenth advantage over Red Bull during F1 pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Ci🐼rcuit.

McLaren appear to be the team to beat heading into next weekend’s F1 Australian Grand P💧rix.

168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lando Norris’ 💦race run on day two in Bahrain caught the attention of the paddock.

Norris was nearly 0.6s faster than 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Charles Leclerc and 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Andrea Kimi Antonelli during the race simulations.

Oscar Piastri backed up Norris’ pace by out-pacing168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: George Russell by around 0.3s on day three on heavy fuel.

Max Verstappen’s fi🌃nal day🍰 didn’t provide a clear picture, although Marko thinks the deficit to McLaren is at least 0.2s.

Speaking to , Marko noted that McLaren’s superior tyre wear contributed to 🌳the gap between the tw﷽o teams.

“It’s hard to sa🧸y exactly what that looks like, because the weather conditions were completely out of the norm. It was cold, it was a strong wind. It even rained,” Marko said.

“It was only the case on Wednesday, when we were on an equal footing with McLaren. But on Friday, the last day, I would say that our gap in the lon😼g 🅺run is currently two to three tenths.

“In addition, the tyre w🍌ear at McLaren was also much better th♒an our data indicated.”

Marko spots Red Bull advantage

While McLaren seem to have the ℱsuperior car, Marko is hopeful that Verstappen can capitalise on McLaren’s driver pairiꦦng dynamic. 

💎Norris was generally the faster driver throughout 2024, but Piastri wasn’t afraid to challenge🐽 his teammate on track when given the opportunity to do so.

Given the strength of McLaren’s driv🤡er pairing and the possibility of taking points off each o🌞ther, Marko thinks that could benefit Verstappen’s title charge.

“If you tak𒈔e the test in Bahrain, then it was Lando Norris who coped much bet🉐ter than Oscar Piastri,” Marko added.

“But I think that was just a phenomen𒅌on in Bahrain. I rate Piastri as equally strong and I hope that this will also take away the two points and we will benefit from it.

“Max is clearly number one for us, and I don’t think Piastri will voluntarily declare himself number two. And we s🐻aw that last season: on certain tracks he was equal to, if not faster than, Lando.

“But the advantage is that McLaren currently has a car again that – if you 𝕴take Bahrain as an example – copes very well with every type of tyre and every temperature.”